Attention lazyweb! Okay, I typically use Vim for all my text editing needs, but one of my co-workers is using (or was using) Kate and couldn’t find a word count feature. I popped Kate open on my desktop (version 2.5.0, from Ubuntu/Kubuntu) and couldn’t find a word count either — granted, I didn’t look too hard, but I’m thinking word count should be pretty much a given in any text editor/word processor, right?
Does anyone know if Kate has this functionality buried somewhere deep inside its twisty menu maze? Bonus points if someone could point me to a plugin or something that enables vi-like keybindings in Kate — I happen to like some of its features, but I just can’t get into writing or editing in anything that isn’t modal. It’s sick, I know.
By the way — word count in Vim is pretty easy: Just select the text you want to count, and use g Ctrl-g while in command mode. This will tell you how many words, lines, and columns you have selected as well as the number of words, lines, and columns in the file itself. Alternately, you can use :wc! % if you prefer the wc utility.
A single follow-up to a press release or invitation, via email, is sufficient. Daily reminders of an upcoming event — that does not even take place anywhere near the city where I work — are emphatically not appreciated and a good way to ensure that all future releases are ignored. Follow-up phone calls to press releases are definitely not desirable.
Now I know why it’s so difficult for PR folks to actually get someone on the phone when I’m working on a story with a tight turnaround time — they’re too busy pestering other journalists to see if they received the press release two weeks ago about the fact that Acme just hired a new Chief Marketing Officer. Ugh.
The care and feeding of the press is an excellent read for anyone working on the PR side of things and working with the press, particularly this bit, Don’t call. Really.
You should not call us to find out if we received your press release. We realize that follow-ups are part of many PR organizations’ normal operating procedure, but in many cases it’s more likely to create resentment. It is appropriate to follow up on requested information, such as a sent press kit or product, but not on a blind mailing.
If we’re interested, you’ll hear from us. If we’ve already established an ongoing relationship because I’ve covered your products earlier, it’s okay to send a follow-up e-mail a few days later to ask if I have any questions; but that’s it.
Now, I know this next point goes against a lot of your training; but take our word for it: Nothing sets a writer or editor’s teeth on edge more than an eager young voice saying, “I’m calling to see if you got the press release we sent.” (It is, alas, common practice to have follow-up calls made by the most junior [read: clueless] members of an agency.) When we’re in the middle of a tight deadline, the last thing we want is a phone call that contains no new or useful information whatsoever. Thus, by making such calls, you’re harming both clients’ and your own reputations. If you actually have something substantive to add, such as pointing out an error in a press release, that’s another story; but you’re still better off sending us an e-mail about it than calling us.
Possibly the worst phone call is when the PR person just reads from a document, and actually has no idea what he’s talking about. If you’re going to have someone just read, why not just e-mail me the information? If someone calls, it should be a person whom I can question a little bit about the news.
No time for commentary on this one, but well worth a read — not just for open source folks, this one’s a concern for everybody. Congress Is Giving Away the Internet, and You Won’t Like Who Gets It:
Congress is going to hand the operation of the Internet over to AT&T, Verizon and Comcast. Democrats are helping. It’s a shame.
Don’t look now, but the House Commerce Committee next Wednesday is likely to vote to turn control of the Internet over to AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and what’s left of the telecommunications industry. It will be one of those stories the MSM writes about as “little noticed” because they haven’t covered it.
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of detail in the TPMCafe post, check out the post on Internetnews.com as well.
A few weeks ago, I wrote up a short review of NeoOffice, the OpenOffice.org port for the Mac OS. It’s up on the site now, check it out if you’re a Mac user and have an interest in finding an office suite without ponying up a bunch of bucks to get basic functionality.
Prior to taking the job I have now as editorial director for Linux.com, I was a freelancer for about six years, writing for Linux Magazine, Enterprise Linux Magazine, UnixReview.com, Linux Weekly News, IBM developerWorks, ZDNet, and a few others.
I thought I’d share a few tips here that might help prospective authors get a little work on the side, or maybe even start up a freelancing career of their own.
In the tech industry, it’s not necessary to be the world’s best writer to get work. Clean copy that’s accurate and easy to read will be just fine — you don’t have to be John Irving or P.J. O’Rourke to get work. It helps to be a subject matter expert in one or two areas, or to be able to do research rather quickly, if you want to write tutorials and HOWTO type articles.
The first step, though, is to send a query email to the target publication. I’ve written hundreds of queries, and read even more, so let me share a little of what I’ve learned that may help you be more successful in getting a query accepted.
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Just in case you were thinking about buying a new iPod — maybe so you can try Rockbox on it, or put Rockbox on your old iPod — you might want to hold off until June. Apple’s CFO is saying they expect prices on the iPod to be “down a little bit in the June quarter.” Not quite sure what “a little bit” is, but I’d like to grab one of the 60GB iPods at less than the current price of $399.
My 20GB iPod is stuffed to the gills. I think the battery life is getting worse, too, but I usually only use it for one to four hours at a stretch, and that hasn’t been a problem yet.
This is the problem with buying new technology. It seems like as soon as you purchase a new computer or gadget, the manufacturer either comes out with a new version with all kinds of nifty new features, or they drop the price drastically — or both.
Most people look forward to weekends because they relax, go out, have fun, that sort of thing. On the other hand, I look forward to weekends because I can work on computer projects that… differ slightly from what I work on during the week when I’m researching articles or doing sys admin stuff. Also, I usually find time to do some pleasure reading and so forth.
This weekend, I think it’s time to put my old firewall out to pasture and set up a new machine. Right now the firewall is a Pentium II 350 MHz machine running Ubuntu Warty Warthog. Since Warty is being retired at the end of this month, it’s time to put a new machine into place and set up a few things I’ve been putting off for some time.
I plan to use the Dapper server install to replace Warty, and an Athlon 1.7GHz machine that’s been seldom-used. Might try to dig up some additional RAM for it too…
After that’s in place, I’ll probably swap out the motherboard in the PII machine with a slightly faster motherboard and the PII will go to the old parts bin.